Saint Louis University
IN-3: Innovation 3

The City of St. Louis was chosen to join a select group of innovative local governments -- Atlanta, Austin, Boulder, Chattanooga, Cranberry Township, Des Moines, King County, New York City and Washington, D.C. -- to participate in a beta test of the STAR Community Index™ (STAR). STAR is a pioneering, strategic planning and performance management system that will offer local governments a road map for improving community sustainability. It is poised to become the national framework for local governments to conduct city-wide sustainability assessments and manage and share resultant information. Participation in the beta testing program required a financial commitment of $25,000 plus resources to help develop and test the STAR system and methodology. Saint Louis University pledged the first $15,000 to ICLEI and launched a fund raising campaign to help secure the remaining $10,000. The campaign was successful and secured St. Louis’ role in this groundbreaking initiative. The Center for Sustainability also made available four students from its Master of Sustainability degree program to assist the City with the project in various capacities. Together, Center for Sustainability staff and Master of Sustainability students helped the City of St. Louis develop a strategic plan, conduct feasibility studies related to the STAR Community Index credits and methodology, collect and analyze data, and coordinate the project. The Center for Sustainability continues to serve in an advisory capacity and our Graduate Assistants are available to assist the City on an ongoing basis. Over the course of the next year, the Beta Communities will work closely with ICLEI to design STAR’s web-based platform and tools, and road-test the STAR Community Index -- using their own real data -- to ensure that it can be adopted by communities of all sizes around the country. SLU’s Center for Sustainability is proud to have secured this important initiative for the City of St. Louis and looks forward to supporting the project going forward.